Two of the most common questions I’ve received from my friends and readers lately about my recent projects are: “What’s the difference between chalk and chalkboard paint?” and “How do I make them?“. Writing a thorough post on chalk paint vs chalkboard paint has been in my queue for some time now, and I’ve slowly been able to piece this information together for you in between caring for new Baby B (who happens to love to cry and keep me up all night!) and racing around after my other two girls. (Three kids has been a challenge so far, let me tell ya!)

I first heard of chalk paint via Pinterest, I believe. It seemed like absolutely everyone was refinishing their furniture with chalk finish paint, and I loved the look – it’s often used when a distressed look is desired.

Chalk paint (or chalk finish paint) is a paint with a matte, chalky looking finish and feel. It doesn’t usually require any prep (like sanding and priming) because it is very thick and sticks well to most surfaces. It also sands very well, which makes it a prime candidate for finishing pieces that you want to distress.

I researched how to make my own (because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on paint), and the best reviews I found were of DIY chalk paint made with latex paint and plaster of paris. My first big project was our kitchen table, and I was thrilled with the feel of the paint and the results I achieved.

I’ve used DIY chalk paint for a few projects since them, one of them being our metal kitchen stools:

You should see how this stuff sticks to metal! It’s fabulous. I sanded the metal stools slightly to begin. I brushed the DIY chalk paint on with a regular nylon brush, waited until it was completely dry, and then sanded the parts I wanted the original black finish to show through a little.

I recommend this DIY chalk paint as an easy way to paint wooden furniture and metal furniture – especially if you want to sand it a little afterwards for a time-worn look.

Here’s my recipe:

Chalkboard paint is a paint you can write on with chalk. It can be rolled directly onto drywall to create a chalkboard wall.

I made this paint to create a fun chalkboard wall for a design competition I was in, and it worked really well. I think DIYing chalkboard paint is fantastic because you can make it any colour!

I recommend using a fine foam roller to roll DIY chalkboard paint onto a wall so that it’s as smooth as possible to write on afterwards. Let the paint dry completely and then “prime” the chalkboard wall by rubbing chalk over the entire thing and then erasing it. This helps future artwork wipe off evenly (leaving no remnants behind).

I recommend this DIY chalkboard paint for creating a small or large chalkboard wall on drywall. I haven’t tried it on any other surface, but from my research it won’t stick to other surfaces quite as well as the DIY chalk paint recipe.

Here’s my recipe:

Have you ever worked with chalk paint? With chalkboard paint? What have your experiences been?

I hope this helps answer some of the questions you may have about DIY chalk and chalkboard paint! If you have any other questions about them, please let me know in the comments.

Thanks for explaining all that. I had no idea you could make your own chalkboard paint. I’m actually in the middle of a project with chalkboard paint, and the surface is turning out a little rough – thanks for the foam roller tip!Dani @ lifeovereasy recently posted..White Bean Chicken Chili

Hello,
I was wondering with your chalk paint recipe how much surface can you cover with the 3 to 1 ratio? Also, do you have to purchase the latex paint in the color you want or is there something you can do to add color and you’re able to expand the use of the one latex paint bucket?

I’ve just used coloured latex paint so far, I haven’t tried adding my own tints. The addition of the plaster of paris doesn’t add much volume to the paint, so use the coverage guide on the original latex paint can as a rough guide. Hope that helps!

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[…] shape to them, but they were a yucky orange and laquer finish. With some DIY chalk paint (you can find my recipe here) and some DIY dark metallic silver wax, I’m slowly transforming them into some sweet shabby […]

[…] shape to them, but they were a yucky orange and laquer finish. With some DIY chalk paint (you can find my recipe here) and some DIY dark metallic silver wax, I’m slowly transforming them into some sweet shabby chic […]

[…] Now stir your paint. Because NOBODY want’s clumpy paint. If you are using chalk paint- same deal. If you don’t have chalk paint but would like to try your hand at making some of your own, my fabulous friend The DIY Mommy has a pretty rockin’ recipe for chalk paint that you can find here. […]

[…] gold acrylic paint, above), but I’ve found it’s pretty easy to whip up another batch of DIY chalk finish paint and quickly paint over the top of my table again. The cool thing about chalk finish paint, is that […]

[…] cleaned the wood with a degreaser and gave it a light sanding. I decided to use DIY chalk finish paint on these because I didn’t want to sand off the old finish completely and I wanted a painted […]

[…] painted all of the wall items with chalk style paint in a nice, warm white. I made mine myself with this recipe, but any sort of chalk style paint will work! The fabulous thing about chalk style paint is that […]

[…] day this week, I had a 1.5 hour window of kidless time to paint. I quickly mixed up a batch of DIY chalk style paint using this recipe and a can of flat latex paint I had on hand. It’s a lovely aqua colour and I threw in a bit […]

[…] the same thing. There is a nice explanation about the difference between the two paint types on DIY Mommy’s blog (she even has some homemade recipes for making your own chalk paint and chalkboard paint!). […]

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